The making of memory albums, more commonly known as “scrapbooking” has become a growing hobby in the last several years. Part of preserving memories is cropping photos into different shapes and arranging them in an attractive way, then embellishing the page with an array of different mediums, such as background mats, strips of paper, stickers and stamps. Finally, thoughts and memos are added to the page. This writing is otherwise known as “journaling”.
In the process of embellishing the page, the handling of very small stickers, such as the dot above an “i” is often required. This can often become a difficult task.
One of the most common shapes that photos are cropped into is a circle. Often colored paper, also cut into a circle, is used as a background mat for the photo. If a person wants to cut a circle out of a circle, or a donut shape, two separate cuts must be made at different intervals from the center of the circle.
When cropping photos or cutting paper into various shapes, many users desire a decorative cut rather than a straight edge. Many different blade patterns are available in scissors, which require that the user make a cut the length of the scissors, then attempt to line up the design exactly before proceeding with the next cut so that the design is not interrupted at any point. If a strip is desired, the same care must be taken to align the patterns so that they match the pattern parallel to them.
If a user wants to create a strip of paper with which to embellish the page, again, two cuts must be made, and extra care taken to make the two cuts parallel to each other.
Embossing is the process of creating a raised image on the front side of a medium, such as paper or foil, by applying pressure from the backside, inside the bounds of a stencil.
Stamping is another popular way to add images to a scrapbook page. The user applies ink to the face of a stamp image and applies the stamp to the paper, transferring the ink onto the paper. Each stamp is commonly mounted on a block of wood for handling, and the ink is usually supplied in many different colors, each color in its own separate package. Because each of the stamps and stamp pads are commonly sold separately, a collection of stamps and stamp pads takes up a lot of storage and makes it more cumbersome to transport.
When stamping, journaling or arranging stickers, a ruler is often used as a straight edge for aligning words, letters, or images in a straight line; however, it is often very difficult to properly align the material as, among other things, the paper and/or ruler may move during use.
Therefore, there is a need to produce scrapbooking tools that are user-friendly and address the problems with the prior tools and methods, while being economical and easy to manufacture.